Dive Brief:
- While hearing health is fundamentally important to health and productivity, it remains almost completely absent from most employee wellness programs, according to a new survey of more than 500 benefits professionals.
- The majority of employers (70%) currently offer a wellness program, but only 8% of these integrate hearing health.
- Employers are far more familiar with wellness programs such as weight control (94%), exercise (89%), smoking (88%) and diabetes management (69%) than programs promoting healthy senses. Vision and hearing health programs are known by less than one-quarter of employers, with vision (23%) surpassing hearing health programs (16%).
Dive Insight:
A little education goes a long way on this issue. When EPIC Hearing Healthcare, who authorized the study, reports that when educated on how detrimental untreated hearing loss is to employee productivity, employers have a definite change of heart.
That is, when employers were asked whether they would integrate a hearing health wellness product into their wellness program if they knew that almost all employees with untreated hearing loss report that it impacts them on the job, a resounding 86 percent said they were very likely to do so.
"By integrating hearing health into wellness programs, employers can provide the push employees need to have their hearing checked regularly, so they can stay fully engaged and productive on and off the job," said Brad Volkmer, president and CEO, EPIC Hearing Healthcare.
